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Choir History
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St George's Singers was formed in 1956 by Rev Eric Chapman, vicar, and Geoffrey Verney, organist and choirmaster, of St George's Church, Poynton where the choir still rehearses every Tuesday night. Their dream became a reality due in large measure to the dedication of Arthur Daniels, Churchwarden, and his wife Mary, who became the first Secretary and Treasurer. Within two years membership had increased sufficiently for the choir to perform Bach's St John Passion. After Geoffrey Verney's sudden and untimely death in 1964, Duncan Eyre, organist and choirmaster at St Peter's, Hale came to "help out" and stayed for twenty years. He was supported by Tim Hill, accompanist to the choir for 23 years. During this period the Singers, now grown to 100 voices, performed all the major works of the choral repertoire. Highlights being The Dream of Gerontius in 1969 and St Matthew Passion in 1973 with Alexander Young as the Evangelist. In 1976 they were invited to perform The Dream of Gerontius at the Royal Northern College of Music to provide a postgraduate student with experience of conducting large forces. The orchestra for this performance was arranged by a student, Ray Lomax, who became Musical Director of the Singers in 1987.
Ray Lomax, principal timpanist with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, expanded the repertoire of the choir considerably, giving British premieres of works by Scandinavian composers Otto Olsson and Ingvar Lidholm. In December 1993 the Singers performed to critical acclaim in a Classical Spectacular at GMex in Manchester before an audience of 9,000. Ray also took the choir to Germany in 1989 and Belgium in 1991, which began a tradition of regular touring. He also directed the Stockport Festival Chorus until his tragically early death in 2002 at the age of 47.
When Ray left the choir in 1996 to pursue other interests, St George's Singers were extremely fortunate in attracting Stephen Williams, not yet thirty, to become their Musical Director. Stephen is steeped in the English choral tradition, having been a chorister at Carlisle Cathedral for 5 years. After Leeds University, where he directed the University Chamber Choir and Orchestra and carried out postgraduate research into classical opera, he studied singing and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music. He became a music teacher at Manchester Grammar School, but left the security of a job he described as the best in the world after three years, to pursue a career dedicated to his first love, conducting. He now also directs the University of Manchester Chorus, the Chapter House Choir at York Minster, and is Chorus Master of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Chorus in Glasgow. Stephen is much in demand for choral workshops, particularly those run by the Association of British Choral Directors. He was a Lay Clerk at Manchester Cathedral for many years and still sings regularly in the Daily service on Radio 4. St George's Singers appreciate having a Director whose professional singing experience informs his training and conducting of the choir. Under his dynamic and inspirational leadership the Singers have gone from strength to strength, expanding in numbers, repertoire and reputation.
Recent highlights include an exciting interpretation of Bach's B minor Mass at the Royal Northern College of Music and a moving St John Passion at the Church of the Holy Name in Manchester, both with the Northern Chamber Orchestra. A dramatic L' Enfance du Christ by Berlioz at St George's Church, Stockport, was accompanied by their own recently formed St George's Orchestra. Two thrilling performances of Handel's Samson were given in 2003. In 2004 the choir sang the rarely performed Gretchaninov Vespers, singing in Church Slavonic to an appreciative audience. The choir’s most ambitious venture was Elijah in November 2004 with Sir Willard White and Manchester Camerata in a sold out Bridgewater Hall. The Manchester Evening News reported that “it was the superbly drilled massed voices of the chorus which made the performance”, a judgement with which the audience enthusiastically agreed as the choir rose for their bow. The roar of approval is a sound that will stay with those present for a long while. The choir was invited to return to the Bridgewater Hall by the Manchester Camerata on New Year's Eve 2005 to be the chorus in their Opera Gala. The choir's Christmas candlelight concerts, with brass bands, guest choirs, celebrity readers and soloists, are very popular, the one at RNCM in 2002 being a complete sell-out.
On the other hand, the Singers' commitment to new music written by young composers was shown by their organisation of a national composing competition, Fresh Air, as their contribution to the celebrations of the millennium. At the final of this competition, at the RNCM, the choir premiered choral pieces by six short-listed composers under the age of 19 to an enthusiastic audience and a panel of judges chaired by Professor Philip Wilby, one of the country's leading contemporary composers. In 2002 the choir commissioned a setting of Psalm 91 from Sasha Johnson Manning, the young Director of Music at Bowdon Parish Church, and premiered it alongside a performance of Tallis' 40 part motet Spem in Alium, with eight separate choirs encircling the audience at St George's Church, Stockport. Stephen has also introduced the Singers to Russian and eastern European music with performances of Schnittke's challenging Choir Concerto and Karai's De Profundis, as well as motets by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Glinka. Copland's In the Beginning and other contemporary American choral music were performed in 2003.
St George's Church, Poynton was the scene for a semi-staged performance of Britten's rarely heard early opera, Paul Bunyan. An innovation in 2004 was a Midsummer Mozart Festival at this church. An open rehearsal included a performance of sonatas by Julia Mayall. A performance of the C minor Mass was accompanied by St George's Players and, the following day, the newly formed St George's Chamber Players performed the Clarinet Quintet and the Serenade for 13 wind instruments. An annual Singing Day in Poynton attracts nearly 200 singers from a wide area to learn and perform choral music in a day. Recent works have included all Purcell's operas, Haydn's Creation and Faure's Requiem. The Singing Day in January 2006 was the most popular ever, attracting over 200 singers to learn and perform Mozart's Coronation Mass and Solemn Vespers to celebrate the 250th birthday of the composer.
Annual tours, now alternately at home and abroad, have become an important part of the choir's activities, eagerly awaited by members. Following their first tour under Stephen's direction, to Amsterdam, they visited Krakow in 2002 where there was standing room only with crowds round the doors, and not a few tears in the Singers' rendition of Gorecki's Totus Tuus, written for the Pope's visit to his native Poland. The 2003 tour was to the Welsh borders. They sang to enthusiastic audiences in Brecon Cathedral and Dore Abbey, and sang Choral Evensong in Hereford Cathedral. In 2004 they visited Helsinki and Tallinn, where Stephen spent three months in 2002 studying contemporary Finnish and Estonian choral music on a Winston Churchill Travelling Scholarship. They sang four concerts, including two with two of the 40 choirs that Stephen had heard during his trip, and one in an extraordinary church in Helsinki carved out of the rock. The highlight was a performance of music by Veljo Tormis, Estonia's leading contemporary composer, to an appreciative response by the composer. 2005 saw the choir touring to East Anglia, performing sacred music by Bruckner, Handel, Monteverdi and Victoria, and, highlight of the tour, Britten’s St Nicolas with a local orchestra in a full Aldeburgh Church , where it was first performed and recorded. They also sang Mozart’s Requiem in beautiful Blythburgh Church, packed despite the same work being performed by a local choir the night before, and Choral Evensong in Lincoln Cathedral. In 2006, their jubilee year and the jubilee of the Hungarian uprising, the choir tour to Budapest and Erd, a small town outside Budapest with which Poynton is twinned, singing music by Kodaly, Karai and other Hungarian composers.
The Singers are very fortunate in their accompanists who contribute to the enjoyment of rehearsals. Andrew Green, Head of Music at King's School, Macclesfield was succeeded by Andrew Dean, Head of Music at Manchester Grammar School and Withington Girls' School. The current accompanist is Jeffrey Makinson, Sub-Organist at Manchester Cathedral. Julia Mayall, a music teacher at Altrincham Grammar School, is a valued assistant accompanist. They are also very pleased to have been able to appoint Marcus Farnsworth as assistant musical director.
St George's Singers are proud of their reputation as a friendly choir. The annual Ceilidh, and wine tasting evenings are eagerly anticipated. A group of members meet regularly for walks and pub lunches at weekends, originally to keep in touch during July and August when the Singers take a break, but now throughout the year.
You can keep in touch with the Singers' future programmes, including a fabulous Jubilee Season in 2005/6, through this web site.
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